Estonia’s Social Insurance Board (SKA) has cancelled child benefits for nearly 3,000 Estonian children who mostly live abroad since 2019, ERR reports. Signe Riisalo, Minister of Social Protection, pointed out that family benefits are only meant for people living in Estonia. People paying taxes in Estonia should not pay for benefits to people who do…
Estonian postal services provider Omniva has opened a new logistics centre near Lithuania’s second-largest city, Kaunas, BNS reports. The company invested EUR 42mn in the new facility, which was the group’s largest investment to date. The logistics centre, located in the Kaunas Free Economic Zone (KLEZ), has an area of almost 22,000 m2. The facility…
The city council of Estonia’s second-largest city, Tartu, has voted in favour of concluding a sister city agreement with the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, ERR reports. The main focus of the cooperation agreement will be to provide help for Ukraine’s reconstruction, civil protection, and crisis management. Both Tartu and Lviv are important university cities…
Nearly half of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Estonia regard the country’s economic climate as being negative, according to a Turu-Uuringute poll for loan comparison platform Sortter, BNS reports. The survey showed that 46% of local entrepreneurs saw the economic climate as negative in August 2024. The main perceived challenges included operating costs (57%)…
Estonia has opened a new military base in the village of Juba, near the southern Estonian town of Võru, ERR reports. The Reedo army base has 14 buildings that can accommodate up to 1,000 Estonian and NATO military personnel. The base is a mustering zone where allied troops can prepare for combat. The construction costs…
The municipal public transport company of the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Tallinna Linnatransport (TLT), will temporarily replace all trolleybuses due to the poor condition of the fleet, ERR reports. TLT will replace the trolleybuses on all four routes with buses as of 1 November 2024. The company plans to procure new trolleybuses and electric buses. The…
The financial regulatory authorities of the eight Nordic and Baltic countries have conducted a financial crisis simulation exercise under the Nordic Baltic Stability Group framework, ERR reports. The exercise was aimed at testing preparedness for a potential crisis situation, including in communication, information sharing, and collaboration between the authorities. Around 450 participants representing Nordic, Baltic,…
A team of researchers at Estonia’s University of Tartu (TÜ), Tallinn University of Technology (TalTech), and the Institute of the Estonian Language (EKI) will teach the Estonian language and culture to large language models (LLMs), ERR reports. The project led by TÜ’s Institute of Computer Science will train open-source LLMs to speak Estonian more fluently…
Estonia’s new ambassador to Georgia, Marge Mardisalu-Kahar, has presented her credentials to Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili, Civil.ge reports. During the presentation ceremony, Zourabichvili and Mardisalu-Kahar discussed bilateral relations, Georgia’s EU integration, the situation in Georgia, and support for Ukraine. The ambassador assured that Estonia would continue to support Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration and Georgia’s territorial integrity….